The Gourmet Home

The Gourmet Home was created by Neil & Nicole Montgomery to share our favorite gourmet recipes that we have learned over the years from traveling, dining out and experimenting in our own kitchen and outside on the Big Green Egg.

The main motivation for this blog is for our twins, Max and Madelyn, to have something to reference as they grow older and want to try recipes that we used to cook and enjoy. The blog will also help to capture memories that we can enjoy, re-live and improve upon forever. Recipes are encouraged to be duplicated by anyone who is interested.  Especially any friends and family that we are not fortunate enough to see and visit on a regular basis.

A little about us… we were married in August 2002 in Key West, Florida and currently live in the South Hills of Pennsylvania outside of Pittsburgh, PA. We first got into gourmet cooking as sales representatives in Northern NJ outside of New York City. Our early careers enabled us to try an eclectic variety of cuisines while entertaining clients all over Northern NJ and New York City.

Our first date was at Chile’s Mexican Restaurant, which we both thought was fine dining based upon our fairly modest upbringings (by the way, we still love the con cueso dip and chips there).  Neil is from a small suburb of Pittsburgh called Washington, PA (known as little Wershington).  Nicole hails from Gansevoort, NY, a small Upstate New York town near Saratoga Springs, NY between Lake George and Albany.

When our relationship began, Nicole’s finest dish was cream cheese dip, putting extra cold cheese on pre-made pizza (she still does this) and gourmet grilled cheese. At best, Neil could throw a burger and corn covered in butter, wrapped in tinfoil on a kerosene grill.

The first meal that we attempted as a couple was a beef roast on a Summer Sunday evening. When we opened the grill after forgetting to check on it, we nearly took off our eyebrows as the roast literally was up in flames like a fireball.

During the first few years of our relationship we gradually expanded our taste buds as we experienced many of the greatest restaurants in the world in New York City. We had the pleasure of going to La Grenouille, Daniel, Asia De Cuba, Ruth’s Chris, Morten’s, Nobu (a life altering experience), Tao, etc. Basically, all of the top Zagat rated restaurants in New York City at the time.

We also got to try the different food ethnicities below cooked perfectly as we sold to a diverse population:

• Indian food in Edison, NJ and Morristown, NJ
• Italian throughout all of Northern NJ, NYC and Arthur Avenue in the Bronx
• Sushi all over the area
• Portugese in downtown Newark, NJ (pronounced locally Down Neck)
• Russian in NYC
• French
• Homemade dishes for all of the above in friends’ homes

Having the opportunity to try all of these different food options both spoiled us and gave us a taste to want to try more things.

[Written from Neil’s perspective]  “Our first place we lived in together had a dining room where we had a dart board and I used to practice my golf swing.  Eventually, Nicole wanted to get a Dining Room table as that seemed to be a more appropriate use of that space.  I liked the dart board and a place to practice golf and didn’t want the table because we never cooked.  I made a deal with Nicole that we had to make a pact to cook a meal every Sunday and eat at the Dining Room table.  We made the pact, bought the table and have been cooking ever since.”

[Written from Nicole’s perspective] “That is basically how our start into cooking began.  The next major change for cooking was when we moved into our next house and Neil bought a Big Green Egg in 2006.  Every Sunday Neil would play pickup football with friends and then invite a bunch of guys over to watch football and cook up something extravagant on the big green egg.  I would also make something and then we would all watch the games and have a great meal.  We called those days Sunday Fundays and a blast.”

Many of our recipes we share here came from those Sunday Fundays.  It is through the years of practice and a couple mistakes that we get to share some of our favorite things that we have made.

Life obviously changed drastically for us, for a good reason, when our twins were born.  This spurred the move back to be close to Neil’s family in the Pittsburgh area.  The twins came into our lives in February 2009.  Watching the twins grow up alongside their grandparents and cousins is a blessing… as they say, “it takes a village to raise a child!”

Although the Sunday Fundays are in the past, we get to make new memories with our family that will hopefully live well past us for generations.  In addition to our kids, you’ll also see pictures of our pets (our first children) Titus & Lucas (brother golden retrievers), Flounder (Our White Himalayan cat), Azul the Fish, Rex & Sam I Am the turtles, and there are some Hermit Crabs named Pinch and Tickle still around as of this release.

We feel very fortunate to have these opportunities in life to enjoy great food among family and friends and hope you enjoy reading the blog and tasting our recipes.  We welcome your feedback and suggestions and hope to continue to learn and grow as gourmet cooks with all of you.